Akin’s Support in the Four Front

By Politico | October 6, 2012

While the national party stubbornly refuses to get involved, four Republican Senators are giving Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-Mo.) campaign a lift. Yesterday, Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Jim Inhofe (Okla.), and Tom Coburn (Okla.) offered the aspiring Senator a helping hand by hosting a fundraising reception on Capitol Hill. For Congressman Akin, who continues to be hammered by the press, it was a sign of growing support in what is shaping up to be a contentious four weeks.

The opposition is determined to dig up unflattering videos of Rep. Akin, including yesterday’s edition, which showed Todd on the House floor in 2008 suggesting that it was “common practice” for groups like Planned Parenthood to give “abortions to women who are not actually pregnant.”

While the mainstream media pounced on the comments as “ridiculous,” physicians and a former clinic worker have already vouched for his claim. “In support of Congressman Todd Akin, I can attest that when I served as director of Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas, we often scared women into getting services they did not need–including abortion–so we could collect the fees,” said Abby Johnson. “This included women who were not pregnant and women who were in the process of miscarrying. Anyone that would attack Congressman Todd Akin for his factual comments on the House floor in 2008 are misguided at best.”

Politico also pointed out that doctors Arnold Bickham and Carol Everett made similar claims in the 1970s and 1980s. While liberals are quick to criticize Akin, this campaign is quietly exposing the real extremists: Planned Parenthood.